I'm excited to be joining Conferize as Executive Chairman (US). Conferize is an early stage conference platform for Business Decision Makers - www.conferize.com (access code DEMO11).

The goal is to build a platform to enable BDMs to find and discover great conferences, especially via peer to peer recommendations; to deliver tools to help them participate while engaged with the online and offline events and then to provide a resource for post conference activities.

It's a very fragmented market but one that is due for an overhaul. A great platform will help the attendees and organizers be much more efficient and effective.

Conferences shape both individuals and our society. Most professional adults can recall conferences where they learned something that changed their life. Or where they met someone that had profound impact on their career.

The conference is a unique form of knowledge production, sharing and interaction. Every year about a million conferences take place in the world, involving hundreds of millions of people and billions of knowledge items. In our increasingly complex society conferences have become an irreplaceable source for providing lifelong learning for the professional looking to constantly upgrade and to extend her network.

No matter how globalized, networked and digitized the world becomes there will always be something special about gathering hundreds of enthusiasts under the same roof to explore a common theme. In the US alone the Meetings Industry has a greater GDP contribution than auto manufacturing, with a total economic activity of $ 907 billion every year.

The global financial and cultural impact of conferences is a daunting demonstration of the knowledge economy at work.

10 areas where we can improve the conference

Yet when it comes to ushering the conference firmly into the digital era a lot could be improved. Not because conferences are poorly conceived or organized, but simply because the right formula for proper application of the social and semantic web hasn’t been developed yet:

1. Searching online for conferences is flawed. Only more so if you try to filter results according to location, interest, language and time. It’s an entire category of life where search has failed.

2. At this very moment you’re probably missing out on a great conference somewhere and you don’t even know. We need better systems to actively keep us in the loop. Rather than searching for conferences the relevant conferences should find us.

3. Most conference websites makes us feel like it’s 1999, and yet it’s never been easier creating great user experiences online. How do we bridge this apparent gap between organizers and technology?

4. With less time and money available to the average employee it means we’re often forced to pass on conferences we actually want to attend. But how can we effectively take part in a conference without being there? With advances in remote connectedness this should be possible today.

5. It’s too hard getting access to the knowledge produced and presented at a conference. You’ll find bits and pieces scattered around the web, on social networks, in inboxes and on hard drives. But where do you get the full picture and find what you’re actually looking for?

6. In our educated culture the probability of a single person knowing more than his crowd of 200 is becoming smaller every day. How can we use technology to harvest the collective wisdom of all the wonderful minds attending your next conference?

7. Today you usually don’t know who’s going to a conference until you’re actually there. And after the conference you often fail to reconnect with someone you met. Surely there must be a better way.

8. To many people it can be difficult to just walk up to strangers and start talking. Why can’t we have a system in place where we can start conversations before a conference, then continue at the conference and even after it’s ended?

9. Even when we’re physically present a part of our attention is constantly devoted to our life online. How do we turn this into a good thing in the conference space? And how do we create meaning in the digital noise that often seem to cloud the conditions for deep learning?

10. When is a conference successful? How do we measure the true impact of a conference, both for organizers, speakers, venues and attendees? For every dollar spent on a conference we ought to know the net return.

Join us to reinvent conferences

The conference is an old industry, fragmented on almost every imaginable level: location, industry, language and time. Not unlike many other traditional industries it needs innovation to come from outside and in.

In a later meeting in Cupertino, he took me through his plan for Apple, how he would polish a tarnished brand. When I asked why he'd returned he responded, in a manner that suggested I should know - that his and Apple's DNA were intertwined. He was Apple.

Over the years I grew to appreciate his directness even if I did not always like the message. Some of the conversations were tough. Being in charge of a high quality publication which had great journalistic integrity and independence from Apple meant that not all the coverage of Apple met with his approval. However, over the years a respect grew for the roles each of us played in the industry. When Steve was not happy about something, he called to let me know - sometimes late at night or at the weekend. At least he was willing to engage and often the conversation ranged far from the original topic and allowed me amazing insight into his thinking. One of the most memorable conversations was when he took me through the draft language for the Think Different campaign explaining how this was the start of building emotional connections with the buyers.

Back in the dark days of the Apple industry in 1997, Steve was the only person who believed that Apple could eventually dominate the consumer electronic industry. It took over a decade of inspired leadership and incredible vision to get there.

To day we say a sad farewell to a remarkable individual who has touched all out lives. My deep condolences go out to his family, I'm truly saddened by his much too early departure - he was just a year older than me and having being involved in the Apple industry since 1987 it has a deep impact on me. Steve's will be remembered for many things, for me it was his ability to make us have emotional attachments to our Apple gadgets. Under Steve's leadership Apple delivered incredible products that changed industries, are a joy to use and inspire us to do more. He leaves an amazing legacy. I feel very honored and l privileged to have played a small role in that journey.

March 02, 2011

Steve Jobs returned briefly from medical leave for the launch of the iPad 2 to a standing ovation where he clearly and persuasively articulated why Apple believes that 2011 will be the year of the iPad2.

The iPad2 (available in both black and white from March 11th) may irk some critics with missing features such as a SD slot, USB connectivity and no upgrades to memory, or improved speakers or higher screen resolution (and of course support for Flash),4G support but Apple delivered an extremely impressive next generation device that will continue to flummox the competition.

The iPad2 retains the same screen size (9.7" diagonal) but is lighter by 15% at 1.33lbs and its thinner by 33% at 8.8mm. The iPad2 uses a new dual core A5 chip that delivers 2x faster CPU speed and 9x faster graphics processing, adds front and rear cameras to support FaceTime video conferencing. Apple would not confirm rumors if they had increased the RAM from 256MB. All these new features are added without reducing the impressive 10-hour battery life and all for the same price as the original iPad. Pricing starts at $499 for the 16GB versions and for those who recently purchased an iPad, Apple is offering a $100 refund.

Apple iPad2 shows very steady but not revolutionary improvement over the first generation device. However, in the months ahead I hope Apple will focus on much needed enhancements to the Operating System. These is still a lot to be done with multitasking and improving the mobile browser both areas where the Android OS has some advantages. I’d also like to see improvements in device syncing plus the iPad2 would benefit from multi-user account switching.

Once the initial demand for the iPad2 has been met Apple will likely use pricing to unsettle the competition. A $100 price drop by the holiday selling period is certainly possible or Apple may simple increase perceived value via a memory upgrade and setting the entry level at 32GB.

Major technology enhancements such as the iPhone4’s Retina Display, Thunderbolt (a USB replacement) introduced on the MacBook Pro laptops, and the NFC near field communications for digital payments, expected in iPhone5, no doubt will be under consideration for the iPad3. Unless Apple's hand is forced by the competitors I don't expect to see the iPad3 before next year.

Apple has carefully selected features and functionality that can be delivered at an attractive price point for consumers, do not drain the battery nor cause developers to re-write their apps for an increased display resolution. The magnetic Smart Cover, perhaps inspired by Japanese bath lids is very cool if a tad pricey at $69 for the leather versions. They are available in a range of colors. I liked the HDMI out and mirroring and hope mirroring is also available for VGA output.

For Apple, 2011 is all about consolidating a dominant position in the post PC era while keeping a careful eye on the competition.

Apple has relied on adoption of the iPad by corporate executives as a way to drive adoption in the business markets. The year of the iPad video focused on their success in education, medicine and business applications. There are currently around 65,000 iPad specific apps in the App store and as the functionality of the iPad improves, Apple expects adoption in business to be driven by influencers who want a device both for business and home use.

Apple also announced iMove and GarageBand apps that emphasized the devices functionality such as using the acclerometer to sense and adjust the sound based on how hard you were playing an instrument.

The HP TouchPad and RIM’s Playbook may have opportunities in the SMB segments but these devices will also need significant success in the consumer space, as corporate executives are likely to want a tablet covering both their business and personal live - they are highly unlikely to buy a secondary tablet.

The Android market will become increasingly fragmented with overwhelming choice confusing consumers. Security on the Android platform and within Android Marketplace apps is a major issue and will have to be addressed before corporations will allow the devices in.

While the sheer volume of competitive devices is going to put some pressure on Apple’s overall market share, there is currently no device on the market or on the horizon for 2011 that can deliver such a complete user experience at the price point. A fragmented competitive marketplace cannot match Apple's tremendous buying power across iPhones and iPads. This will continue to give Apple a huge price advantage.

Maybe by 2012 Apple will see some really serious competition but the company is likely to once again dominate the tablet world in the year ahead. It's focus on technology combined with the liberal arts sets it apart from the copycats who are focused on speeds and feeds and miss this subtly.

Apple’s claim that 2011 will be the year of iPad2 seems well founded.

Now why can't I pre-oder at the Apple Store ? I don't want to wait until March 11th.

January 10, 2011

After a few years with a weak pulse, the energy, enthusiasm and crowds were back in force at CES in Las Vegas with estimates of around 140,000 attendees.

Apple does not exhibit at the show but its influence on the industry was clearly seen in the product design and functionality of some the most interesting mobile products. These included advanced smartphones or “superphones” announced by Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG and many others.

These superphone come feature packed with dual core processors, large amounts of ram and storage, an HTML5 browser, and support for HD video, micro HMDI out, front and rear cameras, and video chat capabilities. Along with better data security encryption some even require finger print recognition to unlock the device. 3D on the phone is not too far away and may end up being much more successful than on TV screens.

Some of the current “Superphones” and others coming out over the next couple of year can function as extremely powerful computers that you carry around in your pocket. Combined with secure file storage in the cloud, fast mobile bandwidth via 4G plus the ability to dock into peripherals such as keyboard and displays theses phones have the potential to replace many laptops.

The message being delivered at this year’s CES is that, over the next couple of years, mobile devices will totally exceed your expectations.

Media Tablets

There were dozens of tablet announcements and lots of prototype demonstrations that focused more on technical specifications than the overall user experience plus the amount of developer support that would be at launch to support the hardware.

One of the issues of having an annual event such as CES is that companies are forced to work to the organizers timetable rather than their own. This results in products often being demonstrated that are not quite ready for prime time. Some companies such as HP decided to hold off and will showcase the PalmPad on February 9th at their own event.

A lot of the tablet attention at CES focused on Motorola Xoom’s one of the first tablets with a 10” screen that will ship with Android 3 (Honeycomb) the first version of the OS designed for tablets, and also on RIM’s Blackberry Playbook that has a 7”screen and is expected to do well with corporations.

However, one got the sense that everyone was holding back a fair amount of information while waiting for the details of Apple’s iPad 2 which is rumored to be announced around 1st February with shipment early April. When asked about pricing, the answer was always “it will be very competitive”. A year after the iPad was announced there appears to be some competition on the horizon although too many of the tablets are chasing features rather than focusing on the totality of the user experience.

The implications for the media industry are enormous. A very large number of people are going to be consuming a lot of content on mobile devices either through a mobile browser or via apps.

Theses devices will be as powerful as many laptops and will be able to receive and display rich media content such as HD video. Static content such as e-editions and digital replicas will start to phase out as the media industry shifts to delivering more dynamic, rich interactive content.

The ability to share and receive content over social networks also needs to be a core feature of mobile content. Today 50% of all active Twitter users are using mobile devices to share and receive information. You don’t have to be constantly monitoring your social network. Applications such as Flipboard make it easy to organize Twitter and Facebook content in a digital magazine style for easy reading when every you want. Facebook “likes” and other sharing mechanisms are driving as much traffic as search. With the CEO of Flipboard now on the board of Twitter, expect to see a very close alignment of these organizations. As the CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo noted at CES – “Twitter is a technology company in the media business”

With the ongoing convergence of the computer, consumer electronics and wireless industries 2011 is being viewed, as a major inflection point for the mobile devices industry. The often-predicted evolution of the Personal Computer era into one of Personal Communications appears to be finally here.

As each iPad folder can hold 20 items and with 20 folders per page, up to 400 items can be available on each screen. This significant improvement in navigating to content of choice is encouraging users to rapidly increase the number of applications and to add more webpage bookmarks. The limit of 20 items per folder is still rather limiting so hopefully Apple will remove this restriction or allow for nested folders.

It's expected that a further update to Apple's 'iOS (4.3) will take place in December, and may include support for a subscriptions billing service.

While the iPad continues to reign supreme in the media tablet market, Samsung's Galaxy Tab had strong initial sales of 600,000 and is expected to sell around 1MM units in 2010. However, Android based tablets are currently hobbled by having to run a Androd Phone operating system. It won't be until Android 3.0 comes out in 2011 that Apple may get some serious competition from the platform.

A number of hardware manufacturers are gearing up for Android 3.0 and the CES Trade Show in January is likely to be a showcase for prototypes of media tablets that will appear throughout 2011.

Acer preannounced several tablets for 2011 release plus their Alive platform but most hardware manufacturers are holding their announcements back until the Android roadmap is clearer.

A couple of statements this week really captured my imagination - one from a colleague Rafat Ali who is looking at designing travel apps and made this observation about the publishing industry

I think it requires a lot more than publishers can grasp at this point. It means re-architecting your company around this evolving mode of media consumption. It means bringing design thinking around every piece of content being created within a media company. It may also mean that the start of your media strategy going ahead could be based around portability and mobility, not just another device your content has to be ported to, the dominant media thinking currently.

It also leads you to thinking about packaging, bundling AND even unbundling in a lot of different ways than couldn't have been imagined just two to three years ago.

Details on the Adobe platform which is powering apps such as WIRED, The New Yorker, Martha Stewart's Living and Dennis Publishing iGizmo are a little sparse. The current bipmap approach, while having some advantages results in massive files to download and sync.

October 16, 2010

A decade after Microsoft‘s Tablet PC failed to gain traction Apple introduced the iPad on 27 January 2010 to positive if muted response from the general and technical press.

Initial derision over the choice of name was coupled with concern from tech geeks that it was an overpriced and underpowered computer tablet. However, despite lacking technologies such as mini-USB, a memory card expansion slot, direct printing, a camera, and flash support the iPad received overwhelmingly positive consumer response.

In under a year the iPad now ranks as the fourth largest consumer electronics device behind TVs, smartphones and notebooks and may be the fastest selling consumer electronic device ever. It contributed to Apple’s shares surging over $300; after near collapse in the late ‘90s the company is now one of the most valuable in the US.

Blowing past initial analysts’ estimates of 5 million iPads in the first year, Apple has sold 7.5MM iPads and is on track to sell around 12 million units worldwide in 2010 with estimated sales of over 36 million units in 2011. Now that Apple has opened up to Verizon these forecasts could go even higher. Apple’s biggest problem is not customer demand; it is keeping up with it.

The iPad is a unique hybrid device sitting somewhere ‘tween a laptop computer and a smartphone but one that is optimized for a “lean-back” content consumption. The customer appeal lies in simplicity of use. An intuitive touch interface, a stunning 9.7” screen, and great battery life together with easy access to the Internet, email, and 300,000 total applications (35,000 specifically optimized for the iPad) available via the iTunes store dazzles and delights potential customers. Those who have purchased the iPad rank it as the highest scoring product ever tracked by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index.

Of course the iPad’s success will drive intense competition especially from smartpad devices powered by Google’s Android and Tablet operating systems. But today, Apple has a significant lead, achieved by carefully orchestrating hardware and OS integration together with its massive developer ecosystem.

Competitors seeking to unseat Apple will be challenged to deliver a significantly better user experience at a more competitive price.

Optimizing for a 9.7” screen was no trivial engineering feat. The effort involved gave Apple a huge competitive advantage but was only part of the story. While initial reviews suggested the iPad was little more than an expanded iPod Touch, many failed to fully appreciate that the overall user experience went far beyond just screen size.

Apple’s key competition, Android, is designed for smartphones not tablets. Android 2.2 and even the upcoming Android 3.0 OS are optimized for up to 5” screens and with some tweaking can work on 7” and perhaps 10” screens (the rumored Motorola “Stingray”) but it’s not an optimal user experience and Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO made it clear during their earnings call that Apple did not believe that the 7" from factor provided a good customer experience.

Although a number of 7” devices using Android 2.2, notably the Samsung Galaxy Tab, will soon be on the market, key hardware manufacturers such as LG and Acer have publicly stated they are waiting for the release of Google’s Android 3.5 Tablet OS (codenamed Honeycomb) due in 2011 before introducing iPad competitors.

In addition to Android tablets, Google had been rumored to be launching its own Chrome OS “Speedbook” tablet, manufactured by HTC and scheduled for November delivery via Verizon.

While the competition races to catch-up the iPad offers a new and exciting canvas to create and deliver mobile content but publishers still face significant difficulties negotiating business terms with Apple.

Unresolved issues remain over revenue sharing on subscriptions, the control over access to customer data and analytics, the split of advertising revenues sold via Apple’s iAd service, and how magazines are marketed and discovered within the iTunes store.

Per copy pricing on the iPad has largely been set at the Single Copy Sales price resulting in howls of protest from consumers who question why they can buy an annual print subscription to their favorite magazine for $12-$15 per annum but are expected to pay around $4.99 per issue on the iPad, especially if they are already a loyal print subscriber.

As publishers consider “universal” subscriptions that combine both print and digital and even “cable-type content aggregation models” the revenue allocations and dealing with Apple becomes even more complex.

There is a lot of posturing from both sides. Apple currently enjoys a position of market strength and can largely dictate terms but at the same time recognizes the importance of the media to their long-term competitive success. Today media companies, while they balk at the business terms, have little choice but to embrace the iPad given the rapidly increasing installed base and Apple’s 160MM iTunes users with credit card accounts.

Much can be gained for both sides from a successful resolution. Maybe it just takes a good arbitrator to bring the sides to agreement and deliver solutions that really benefit the consumer.

While competition is good for consumers excessive fragmentation can hurt a nascent market. Both publishers and consumers will benefit greatly if there are more streamlined solutions for digital content production and distribution.

Publishers are taking a range of different approaches with the delivery of content on the iPad. Some publishers opting to distribute little more than pdf versions of their print magazines (sometimes enhanced with additional multimedia content) while some are taking more aggressive, innovative and more costly approaches that fully utilize the functionality of the device and Internet capabilities via dedicated applications. Others are looking to distribute digital media content via mobile browsers using the rapidly evolving HTML5 standards.

A number of interesting magazine experiments on the iPad worth watching include:

Esquire from Hearst is using the ScrollMotion platform. Great interactive elements if a little confusing navigation makes this app stand out especially as it does not try to include all the content from the print product. Another popular Hearst title, Popular Mechanics, has received positive reviews for the app and pricing at $1.99 per issue.

Food and Wine from American Express Publishing uses WoodWing’s Digital Magazine Tools. The app delivers several interesting navigation features to access content. WoodWing has delivered a number of iPad magazine applications from around the world with different pricing approaches to the per issue sale.

Popular Science and Popular Photography from Bonnier use their Mag+ technology. Mag+ demonstrated some initial design innovations but the pace of development on the Mag+ platform appears to have slowed.

Wired and The New Yorker from Condé Nast uses Adobe’s Digital Magazine Solution. Condé Nast initially assumed flash would be fully supported on the iPad and then had to adjust their strategy. The current iteration produces very large downloads.

Condé Nast has also lunched Gourmet Live Apphttp://bit.ly/a2xSdR that was developed in collaboration with Anil Dash’s Activate. It deserves a call out for being developed in HTML5 as well as its extensive user of social networks.

Better Homes and Gardens from Meredith, one of the top circulation magazines in the US, is about to launch an iPad app. The slow time to market from major publishers such as Meredith opens up opportunities from more agile start-ups.

Another major challenge facing publishers is dealing with several distribution platforms. Current options include:

Zinio which offers a paid digital newsstand platform and has an extensive number of top publishers signed up although the majority of them are distributing pdf replicas. By investing in Viv Magazine http://vivmag.com/about-viv/magazine Zinio is trying hard to educate publishers on the potential of multimedia content on tablet devices.

Texterity is encouraging publishers to adopt a strategy of print plus digital subs and encouraging content sharing through their Coverleaf product http://www.coverleaf.com/ . These are welcome initiatives as too many publishers are taking a “walled garden approach and not embracing the social networks.

ZMagsclaims over 2,500 customers across 50 countries. They have issued a well-produced whitepaper to guide publishers on the transition to mobile. Issued in June it’s already a tad dated but their advice is very sound .

Pixel-Mags has announced in-app subscription in addition to single issue downloads. In particular access to 26 issues of AutoWeek for $5. The content is largely a replica of the magazine rather than being designed specifically for the iPad.

Next Issue Media The consortium from Time, Hearst, Condé Nast, Meredith, and News Corp is looking to develop a cross platform content distribution service and digital newsstand but details remain sketchy. It’s uncertain if they will be a major competitive force to Apple’s iTunes.

Publishers are seeking a seamless solution that integrates well with their existing systems and allows distribution across a variety of mobile devices. While looking to take advantage of the specific functionality of applications they need to be planning for a time when the mobile browser offers the functionality of today’s applications but does not lock them into any specific platform.

Recommended approaches

The mobile market for publishers is at a very early stage of development, it’s messy and confusing and unlikely to become simpler any time soon. However here are a number of recommended approaches:

Think hard and research the customer value proposition. Carefully consider what content is appropriate for print, on a smartphone and on a smartpad. The UI/UX varies significantly across platforms so replicating content across devices is not a good long-term strategy. Content navigation should take full advantages of the device’s features but it needs to be simple and intuitive. Minimize the surprises for the user.

Ensure your publication has an effective mobile web page for all key mobile browsers before developing a mobile app. Check out how your publication looks on key mobile browsers and mobile platforms.

Look to develop “universal subscriptions” that combine print and digital. Price digital subscriptions modestly above print subscriptions. A price of around $1.99 per issues seems to resonate well with consumers. Balance the per issue price with collecting addition customer data (with careful privacy considerations) so that advertising can be more targeted and can command higher CPMS. B2B publications should focus on collecting user information for lead generation programs.

If the approach is taken to distribute a pdf version, set customer expectations appropriately and price accordingly. Personally use the replica on mobile devices for a month or so to appreciate the customer experience and then determine if this is a good strategy to follow.

Go beyond a walled garden approach. We’re in a mobile social world so ensure that the content can easily be shared. Use social networking account log-ins via Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter for easy connections.

Work through all the revenue opportunities – advertising, subscriptions, and data collection for lead generation, e-commerce, and affiliate revenue streams. Don’t over rely on a single revenue source.

Be extremely clear and transparent over the audience data being collected and what cookies are installed. Clearly call out your privacy policy.

Analytics should be embedded thought the mobile web pages and within the mobile app so that the customer usage patterns are well understood and the UI adjusted accordingly.

Discovery of apps is a major issue. Take every opportunity to promote your app at each customer interaction. Work with apps review sites such as Appolicious to get your app noticed.

Mobile is the future of publishing. While it’s too early to advocate a mobile first strategy, publishers need to be investing in and planning for the mobile future today.

Publication brands have to consider content distribution across a variety of media - print, online, smartphones, smartpads and soon smartTVs. The engagement of the customers and the time they spend in each medium will ultimately determine the allocation of resources.

Today revenues are being disproportionately allocated to legacy media but the transition to “new” media is occurring rapidly.

The publishers who are preparing now for the world of digital, mobile, and social will see success.

September 01, 2010

iPod Nano - not sure on this - looks really cool - but not sure why I'd buy it - it's an iPod Shuffle with better interface for another $100 - me - I just listen to music on the iPhone. For a few, no video is a negative - but I think Apple made the correct call. The product needed a refresh and this may work - I'm not the target.

iPod Classic - not mentioned but still available (for now) - I still love this device for transporting large volume of music - great in the car etc.

iOS upgrades - just can't wait for November to get it on my iPad - maybe Apple will use the November time frame to rollout new iPads - it would be outside their normal cycle but given the market competition could make a lot of sense - whenever - we'll probably see a 7" screen and integrated camera. iPad is a truly spectacular media consumption product - whose potential is only starting to be realized. It's no wonder the media industry is all over this device.

Ping - for me this was the most intriguing announcement - still trying to appreciate the potential around verticals other than music - movies, apps etc. Apple may have under estimated the effort involved with managing a social network and some of the "crazies" it attracts. However I see Ping offering artists their own "homepage", and labels offered an aggregation opportunity. Longer term - we'll see "streaming" from Apple extend to other areas. Many elements of LaLa are evident (and Facebook of course). Apple has never really embraced "social" as it's outside their walled garden DNA - this will be extremely interesting to watch to see how they deal with some of the inevitable issues.

Apple TV - OK so other devices such as Roku offer similar functionality - personally I like the Apple eco-system and will pre-order for my home office. I think the simplicity, the UI/UX is spectacular and at $99 it's my personal early "stocking filler"

Apple pulled off a polished sold event that's now a traditional update for it's music products before the holiday season. There was nothing truly spectacular announced but their momentum remains exceptionally solid. The "techie" detractors are nit-pciking but Apple investors and the majority of consumers will be extremely happy

However, I'm still intrigued why Chris Martin did not pick up and play the guitar.

PS Please enough of the the Macworld Expo references - it's not a reasonable comparison (Apples to Oranges) - your success at retail is spectacular but despite Apple's decision to pull out of Macworld Expo it is still very much alive and well. It's a key part of the the industry's eco-system and complements everything Apple does.

Under the leadership of my friends and colleagues Paul Kent and Mary Dolaher the event in 2011 is shaping up extremely well. I may even have a cameo appearance - in the past, my few seconds of fame were to quickly introduce Steve and get out of the way - my kids still laughs at my Boston 1997 intro to Steve which thanks to YouTube is available to all. Those were dark days for the Apple industry - who (other than Steve) would have that Apple could command such market success.

March 16, 2010

At the Future of Publishing Summit, #FoPub held today at the Cipriani in NYC - technology and companies came together to share their vision. Google, Sony, Marvell, Qualcomm and HP - not only discussed the trends but gave the audience a glimpse of several new products and technologies. Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies and I worked with conference organizers IRR to create an event that differentiated itself from the many others covering the digital publishing industry - by tackling issues across books, newspapers and magazines (while recognizing their different issues) and also by bringing several critical West Coast technology companies to the capital of publishing. For the next event - we're considering the reverse

The publishers were excited about the ability of the new devices to better showcase digital editions and hopeful that they could charge for quality digital content on mobile. While progress is being made - work remains to done on workflow and metrics. The need for publishers to take a strong position on getting access to (non PII) user data was a key topic.

There was a perspective was that Apple's spat with Adobe over Flash - at least short term - opens significant opportunities for many competing devices once they hit the market. I'm a fan of Apple's products - but I have serious doubts about their decisions not to directly support key Adobe technologies in the mobile browser..

Welcome,

During the last 20 years spent in
publishing I’ve watched the sun start to set on an old media age (print) but been
very grateful to be part of the dawn of the digital media era – we're seeing a revolution on the reading experience - today we’ve so many new ways to inform and
entertain audiences with great content - unburdened by the past restrictions of the print container.

We focused the
Future of Publishing Summit on the symbiotic relationship between content
and emerging technology and the opportunities it brings to publishers - with a particular focus on mobility.

However there’s additional pressure on publishers and authors . The bar is now
so much higher. Although some will see that as a creative opportunity.

Unlike the static world of
print, digital requires publishers and authors to create and deliver dynamic, compelling, multi-media content
– audio, text, images, video and interactivity all within a seamless user experience. Users now expect a media experience
that takes full advantage of the display,
functionality and navigation of their devices.

Mobile media is particularly
exciting, because it can delivery both the lean forward active, and social
media aspects of online and the lean back elements of print - plus a lot more. Mobile has several unique
elements - but most importantly it’s an extremely personal media –also it knows where you are. "You
can be uniquely profiled by your mobile phone number “ The content targeting
and marketing opportunities are very significant.

Mobile is the most recent and
most disruptive mass media-- all previous
mass media have had profound impact on the distribution of news, information
and entertainment - but until the Internet, mass media presented and pushed information downstream in a one
directional way. However, the Internet – gave
us our first bi-directional mass media -- you can search for content, interact
with it and share it with friends and colleagues - the end result – powerful
social networks plus a lot of money
for the search engines.

Mobile is truly a mass media.
We’ll have 5BN mobile
subscriptions worldwide this year .Mobile data traffic will double
every year through.

At
the iPad launch, Apple's Steve Jobs described Apple as a Mobile Devices company. That’s a massive signal to the publishing
industry. Eric Schmidt is leading a
Mobile First strategy at Google. It seems clear; the long-term future is
mobile.

Mobile data services are not
new - SMS/ MMS, ringtones, mobile entertainment, are all massive industries but
the difference today from these direct response services is the range of mobile-web, content opportunities.

25%
of Americans use cell phone to access news – but
only 17% read a national (print) newspaper such as NYTimes or USAToday. Already
the Internet ranks just behind TV in popularity, soon the Mobile Internet will overtake the PC
Internet. Now is the time to plan for mobile.

Mobility skews younger - those
under 50 are three times more likely to access information on the go. Younger users
take full advantage of the mobile Internet - theytake pictures, SMS / Message each other, use social
networking sites, blog, and send out status updates. So engaging this younger demographic with
compelling content will be key for the industry’s future.

Just in time, on the go, personalized
news is a big opportunity for news media but mobility is also reshaping the
book and magazine industries. e-books volume is modest - around 3-5% of total
book sales - but the projected growth is intoxicating.

Books as applications are now
the largest segment (at least by number of applications) in the iTunes Apps
store and with the launch of 150 categories on the iPad, these numbers are
likely to increase rapidly. But ss numbers grow – so is the challenge of
discovery.

The book industry is being
re-imagined as it is unleashed from the static environment of print – enhanced
digital products from trade fiction to education look to combine audio, text,
images, and video with the ability to interact with and share content. vook and Scroll Motion will discuss products that go far beyond “pdf”
versions of a print book.

There going to be more
competition – It’s much easier to self publish so expect a surge of innovation
and creativity from young entrepreneurs (and maybe some older ones) that will
act as competitive catalyst to the industry but may also scare some.

If this event had been held a
couple of weeks later many of us would be iPad owners. Although some have been
quick to hail Apple's new “media consumption device” as the savior of the
publishing industry – it’s still very unclear as to exactly what content will
be consumed or will be popular on the device.

Publishers
can now design to the new devices – Ok, some may still favor
the discrete or definite publishing format – one that’s closer to a print
experience (a digital replica) perhaps enhanced with multimedia and social sharing
technologies. More innovative
publishers will see the tablets as a creative canvas, large and versatile
enough for more freeform layouts that are closer to a web experience.

I believe, content designed
specifically for mobile devices and the mobile medium will be much more
effective and engaging than just a digital replica version of a print product. As mobile is even more measurable than
online and as Data trumps opinion – publishers (and advertisers) will be able
to measure what really works.

There are no quick, easy
answers – so it’s great to see experimental digital magazine prototypes from Condé
Nast, Bonnier, Time's SI and others. Initiatives from Next Issue Media and
digital distributions platforms from Zinio, Skiff, Scroll Motion, Texterity and
Blio will all help get digital content in front of readers.

e-reader and tablet pricing will
continue to fall. Digital
storefronts from Apple, Google, Amazon even Wal-Mart will drive rapid adoption
of digital content. This is a massive opportunity for the industry – well, once
we figure out the revenues!

Predicting the future can be
a dangerous game. It’s hard to identify the exact winning products – but it’s not so hard to identify trends – we’re dealing with the rapid shift to consuming
and creating dynamic content on mobile devices.

The
transition to online was pretty rough for publishers but mobility gives a reset
opportunity – a chance to better balance digital revenue streams between
advertising and paid content and to embrace the benefits of social networking.

Even
if revenue today is modest, publishers should look to building a strategic plan
covering both a Mobile Internet Strategy and a Mobile Apps strategy,

Technology is neither
the grim reaper nor the salvation for publishers. However, the combination of compelling
content coupled with great technology can dazzle and engage digital readers. Technology
and publishing need each other. East
Coast meet West Coast! Tie – no tie!

The market is
big enough to support many approaches. Tablets such as the iPad will easily allow
you to surf the web, listen, watch video, email and chat with your friends,
play games and yes maybe even read in-depth articles as well.

But for some
that’s just too much noise–
there’s a large audience who wants a quieter, uninterrupted reading experience
– e-readers can serve this large market well.

We won't solve
all the issues for the publishing industry here but we can lay some foundations
for the opportunities ahead. Let's continue the
conversation and exchange ideas on the Future of Publishing at:

February 18, 2010

With Apple's iPad shipping around the end March, newspaper and magazine publishers are eagerly looking at it as a new distribution opportunity for their brands provided terms can get resolved.

Some of this enthusiasm may be justified as it is hoped that digital replica and extended editions with multimedia content will breath new life into an industry that has been battered over the last few years. But there are potential pitfalls ahead as publishers move print into this digital environment.

Print is a passive lean back medium that allows readers to consume content in a reflective and uninterrupted manner. It's ideally suited for long-from content.

Online is a very different environment. Driven by search and social media online is an active, action oriented lean-forward medium. Users seek out specific content and information via search, they interact with content and share it among their social and professional networks. Audiences tend to scan rather than read long-form content in-depth.

The newest of the mass media, mobile, is a highly personalized medium. Mobile devices, especially smartphones, are nearly always on, always with us and are location aware. They are becoming the remote control to our physical and digital worlds.

The iPad brings together elements of all of these media and offers publishers an tremendous opportunity to build a close connection between their brands and the consumer that they were in danger of losing in the fragmented world of online.

It will be fascinating to watch how audiences interact with the iPad. Will people use it to read digital versions of newspapers, magazine and books or will they see it as a web browsing and communications device or as an entertainment device ? Will brand advertising work better on tablets than it has worked to date online ?

One thing is certain, no matter how audiences interface with the device - they can and will be measured.

So If publishers are to place a digital replica of their magazine or newspaper onto the iPad, they need to expect to be held accountable to at least similar standards of measurement that are seen online.

A wide array of key metrics will be available and advertisers are going to ask to see them. These will range from confirmed delivery of the digital edition, to unique opens, to how many times a magazine or newspaper is opened, the total amount of time spent with an issue, pages viewed, activity inside any page, what content is shared, how many issues in a row are read. And much, much more.

The availability of metrics is going to shed light on real reading trends, as well readers interaction with advertising. A big question that eventually will be asked is, "are metrics around the iPad digital versions a proxy for interaction with the print versions ?".

For some publishers, this could help support increased fees structures, due to being able to prove highly engaged readers. But for others, it may shed light on questionable circulation growth strategies and mis-matched media buys. Issue based audit companies such as ABC and BPA could struggle to remain relevant in this new environment with companies such as Quantcast or Omniture vying to replace them with their deeper metrics.

Print publishers and their trade associations such as Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) have always argued, with great conviction, that their audiences are passionately involved with the brands. Now detailed metrics on digital editions will be available to prove that or they will show engagement is not as intense as had been promoted.

It's inevitable that the metrics are going to surface. Enough publishers will put their magazines and newspapers onto the iPad for that to happen and advertisers will seek transparency. For strong brands and for titles serving passionate special interests this could be a great opportunity. Broad generalist titles with weak audience engagement will disappear fast. Publishers need to prepare their strategies and tactics for the day that metrics get revealed.

In many cases publishers might be better off thinking about taking an alternative approach to replicating one media on another and having comparison made between the print and digital replica versions.

Digital replicas of print issues just may not be the correct strategy.

It may not be what iPad audiences are looking for. Transferring the elements of an old media to a new one has never worked before so it's unlikely this time will be much different. What's important is the total user experience. Publishers really need to focus on the needs of their users and then couple that to to functionality of the device and the advantages of the medium. The ability to personalize and aggregate content may appeal a lot more than digital replicas. Distribution platforms such as Zinio and Skiff have a chance to work closely with publishers and help define the market.

However, I remain highly skeptical that a digital version of print, even enhanced with multi-media will cut it over the long-term. There may be a market for such an approach but it is likely to be relatively small and short lived. While have been some very interesting prototypes demonstrated from Conde Nast's WIRED, , Bonniers Mag+ and Time's Sports Illustrated these do not go quite far enough to reflect current online behavior.

Online is not a replica of print nor is mobile a replica of online. Most customers will expect content specially formatted for the iPad and tts touch screen capabilities, its internet capabilities including search, aggregation and social media functionality and e-commerce. Media must match the medium.

It will happen. But innovation is much more likely to take place among entrepreneurial, smaller publishers and even self-publishers. The large publishers could be at extreme risk. They tend to move slowly and are highly protective of their old business models. The iPad, while opening up some new distribution channels, will not have the scale initially to make much difference to the numbers for large publishers but could expose a lot of metrics that marketers may attempt to apply back the print environment.

Five major publishers have formed a consortium, Next Issue Media, to push digital initiatives and I await with interest to see the exact strategy unfolds. If clumsily handled the iPad could exacerbate the print industry's problems rather than helping solve them. Conversely for smaller publishers with niche audiences the iPad will offer some great opportunities.

I have little doubt that the iPad and its emerging competitors will be great content consumption devices. How the content should be formatted for an optimal consumer experience on these devices remains untested. In the interim, publishers need to carefully consider and plan for the impact of having digital readership metrics available in the marketplace.

It will be very exciting to see how really smart innovators will re-invent the reading experience and the future of publishing on the iPad.

January 27, 2010

The Steve Jobs iPad Tablet media show today at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco was always going to have a hard time living up to the ridiculous pre-launch hype that's been circulating around the web.

Steve's presentation was more moderated than at previous product launches as he tried to manage expectations positioning the device as a tweener product - "more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone.''

By the time we emerged from the iPad presentation and the demo area where, under the watchful eyes of the Apple execs and security staff we were allowed to play briefly with the device and the few announced accessories, it was obvious that the world was very much the same as when we went in.

This was always going to be Apple's toughest audience. The crowd reaction was generally positive if rather muted. Of course, the group was largely press who have a tendency to be ultra critical and even cynical given the amount of marketing and PR hype to which they are subjected. People also react to what they know and understand and have more difficulty seeing the longer-term vision and opportunity.

A big challenge facing Apple's iPad is that unlike phones and laptops this is a nice to have, not an essential to have product. But it's a very slick device and a lot people will want one even if they don't absolutely need it. It's a product that will evolve and build over time rather than being an instant success.

The light and thin iPad has a bright and crisp resolution, the performance is fast. Web sites (well those without flash) look great. Unmodified apps scale up to full screen and generally are acceptable while the Apps written for the enhanced iPhone operating system raise the bar significantly.

A typical reaction of it's just a big iPod Touch is understandable as that's what it looks like, but that does not start to do justice to the device and the engineering effort that went into the product and supporting eco-system. Customers understandably may see this as a bigger iPod touch but its no trivial matter to take a multi-touch captivate screen to 9.7 inches.

The "magic" in Apple iPad is just how seamlessly it appears to work. It's going to be a while before Apple's competitors can match the functionality in a similar form factor, which could give Apple an 18-24 month lead.

There are some notably omissions - if the devices is positioned as a great web browsing devices, the lack of flash support is a problem - especially with video streaming fans. . While Apple may be moving to HTML5, Adobe's Flash is going to be around for a long time. Mulit-tasking would have been nice.

There is no camera - the device seems a natural for video chat - but then again we don't have iChat on the iPhone. However the camera is an essential tool to bring together the physical and digital worlds. Augmented reality and digital over lays can greatly enhance a users experience. Given Apple has pushed video cameras in the desktops, laptops and in the iPhone (but not iTouch) the lack of this feature is really surprising. Maybe it's just as well Apple is positioning the product as environmentally friendly and recyclable as I have a suspicion that, as with the iPhone, I could be upgrading each year.

Given I carry around an iPhone all the time, having a tethering option for the iPad or Laptop would be welcome rather than having to sign-up for another data plan.

The virtual keyboard is thankfully enhanced by physical keyboard options - either dockable or via Bluetooth. However, the iPad does not support Apple's Bluetooth mice so extended activity within iWork may be problematic. While it was good to see the iWork applications, the target audience release of iPad iLife applications would have been more appropriate - but expect them to appear relatively soon after launch.

Apple has added the iBook store to its iTune and Apps stores but other than announcing support for the ePub format it made no reference to enhancing the SDK with tools that could make it easy for publishers to easily create dynamic multimedia content. While the iPad offers great potential for book, newspaper and magazine publishers there will have to be significant iPad sales before publishers invest considerable resources to create content that takes full advantage of the device.

Newspapers and magazine are obvious candidates for the iPad but we'll have wait and see if publishers will develop their own apps and go direct or look at platform players such as Skiff, Zinio,Texterity and others to act as intermediaries. For customers who just want to read trade books a dedicated e-reader may be a better option than the extremely bright LCD iPad screen. Reference books will benefit from enhanced multimedia and social networking but it remains unclear just how much of that functionality is currently offered within the SDK.

The opportunity for publishers to connect directly with their customers is extremely appealing. The analytics that will be built into the SDK will provide valuable customer engagement information and in application ad servicing will provide additional revenue streams over and above paid content models.

This is a product that is likely to grow on you and it has enormous long-term potential. Its immediate strengths are in entertainment - games, movies and music. The opportunity for content publishers is significant but needs a lot more work. While I have already signed up to be notified of when I can purchase an iPad, the absence of a camera and video chat prevents me from granting the device the "magical" status Apple has already bestowed on it. Check one out when you can.

Apple's iPad mobile device is 0.5 inches thick (or thin) with a 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768 display. Storage options of 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB are offered. The device is powered by Apple's custom A4 1 GHz "Apple A4". Pricing starts at $499, $599, and $699 for the varying capacity Wi-Fi models without 3G, and $629, $729, and $829 with 3G. Wi-Fi (802.11n) only models are scheduled to ship in 60 days with 3G-capable model shipping in 90 days, pending FCC clearance. The US 3G data plans will be offered by AT&T at $14.99 for 250 MB and $29.99 per month for unlimited usage as well as free access to AT&T hot spots. No long-term contracts are required and the products, which use GSM micros SIMS, will be unlocked. Plans for non-US users should be in place around June / July.

iPads feature an accelerometer, compass, speakers, a microphone, and 30-pin dock connector features. The iPad offers a claimed 10 hours of battery life for viewing video and 1 month of standby battery life.

January 26, 2010

In April 1977, Steve Jobs introduced the break-through Apple II. 26 years ago on 24th January 1984 the Macintosh, in October 2001 he brought us the iPod and at Macworld Expo in January 2007 he introduced the iPhone. Tomorrow on 27th January 2010 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco it's widely expected that Steve Jobs will unveil Apple's new creation - a mobile digital tablet.

Some see the product, as a super iPhone or potential laptop replacement - but Jobs, who over the last thirty years, has dramatically influenced the Personal Computer, Music and Phone industries will hardly be content simply to announce a new device.

Apple's visionary goal could be no less than the recreation of the whole publishing industry by providing an integrated hardware, software and distribution eco-system. A total system that will start to change the way content is created, consumed and purchased on mobile devices.

It's quite possible that Apple will reference or evoke the Sumerian clay tablets dating back 5,000 years. These tablets written in cuneiform scripts are the earliest known writing system. They chronicled stories of creation, the Flood and the arrival of Halley's comet as well as the commercial activity of the period.

Apple may believe that their electronic slate will have as dramatic an impact on information as did the ancient Mesopotamians.

Of course, Apple is not new to driving dramatic change in the publishing industry. In the mid '80s, Apple's Graphical User Interface (GUI) on the Macintosh along with Aldus (PageMaker), Adobe (PostScript) and Hewlett Packard (LaserJet) introduced Desktop Publishing and gave powerful but easy to use tools to a new generation of designers.

For the last decade and a half, digital publishing has been evolving from print to the web. Generally, it's not been a happy experience for publishers. The traditional print models have not transitioned well.

Brands' direct interaction with their readers have been weakened, audiences fragmented and content is widely created and distributed across the web. Search and social networks have had a dramatic impact on traditional publishers.

Trying to protect legacy businesses by trying to create digital replica models of print products especially magazines and newspapers resulted in a dreadful user experience. Content, which had been designed for viewing in portrait orientation, was forced into a landscape mode forcing the reader to pan, scroll and zoom.

For centuries, print publishing has been a world of publisher controlled, static information. However, we're now on the verge of having dynamic real-time, multi-media content delivered to our personal mobile computing devices in a format that is optimized for the device. Publishers now have another opportunity to work out the digital opportunities.

Mobile is offering publishers a reset opportunity to deliver target content in formats that work for the consumers and the mobiel devices they are using. Because of the personal nature of mobile devices, brand have a better opportunity to directly connect with their audiences than is possible online.

Apple is likely to provide tools for the creation of great content available via new software development kit (SDK) and is able to deliver a massive buying audience via iTunes.

Publishers will have an opportunity to experiments with variety of revenues models. Analytics built into the SDK will allow publishers to truly measure the engagement of their audiences and better understand their interests.

Already books are the second largest iPhone Apps category. Expect to see exponential growth in the broad category of content - books, newspapers and magazines as publishers sign on to Apple's distribution services.

If Apple manages to pull this off, it will be both potentially devastating and liberating for legacy publishing industries.

Bright creative entrepreneurs will change the moribund textbook industry, children's books with be brought to life via multimedia, the travel guide industry and special interest publishing will be revolutionized, comic books anime and manga will reach massive new audiences. Where it makes sense text can be enhanced by audio and video, readers can be connected to discuss and share content, and new business models can be developed that take account of how readers want to access and consume content. The whole of the publishing industry could be revitalized. The journey is the reward.

Apple cannot save the publishing industry but it can provide great tools to help publishers save themselves.

Tomorrow Apple's is likely to showcase an incredible consumer device that will raise the bar for the a number of industry, not least publishing.

As with the launch of the Mac, iPod and iPhone it took time to fully appreciate the devices impact.

Over the last three decades Apple has released devices that excites and engages their customers - products that makes them go "wow - I want one, now! The Apple tablet will continue a great tradition.

January 11, 2010

After 16 years of living, working and raising three sons in
San Francisco, Sue and I recently decided to swap our city life for a more
relaxed and sunny one in the Marin town of Tiburon.

The process of buying and selling has changed dramatically,
since we purchased our first property in the San Francisco Cow Hollow area. Moving from the United Kingdom, the
prices back in 1997 gave us sticker shock at the time but had incredibly tripled
by the time we sold in 2004.

With the current economic challenges, prices have
fallen back considerably but are still significantly above those back in 1997,
a fact that initially concerned us as we entered our property search. Do
property prices have even further to fall even if there has been a recent uptick in prices ?

Current economic problems, unemployment and looming credit
card debt issues and mortgage rate resets may still have some damage to inflict on a weak property
market. However, we have watched over the last few months as decent properties
in Marin County and the Bay Area were still snapped up for close to the asking
price almost as soon as they go on sale. In addition we want to get on with our
own plans so decided it was the right time for our move.

The level of transparency on the residential property market
and ability to properly research such a key purchase has thankfully improved
dramatically over recent years. Online services such as Clean Offer, Great Homes, Zillow
and Trulia made it easy to identify properties
that fit our criteria. When away from the laptop, other useful Phone Apps we
referenced included: Zillow,
Trulia,
Smarter
Agent, Homes.com,
and Blue
Atlas Broker.

In addition to our own comprehensive research, we used the
services of a realty agent, Patricia Navone,
who works for Morgan Lane, part of
Mark McLaughlin’s McLaughlin
Ventures. Patricia is a friend and previous colleague at Macworld Communication, Inc. who over the
last several years has shown us around Marin
County with great patience, as we considered which area would best suit our
needs. She has extensive knowledge of the Southern Marin property market and was an invaluable
asset throughout the process. Text messaging, complemented e-mail
communications and enabled us get a swift answer from her even when she was
with other clients.

We now live in a world of mobility where access to data and
information is nearly always within an arm’s reach. Smartphones such as the iPhone are complementing and even
replacing laptops in some cases.

While some research was easier to conduct in
front of my MacBook Air , the iPhone apps proved
extremely useful when out scouting potential areas. Whilst driving around, Google maps and iPhone Apps such as Around
Me made it easy for us to see what other local
services were close to the houses we were considering and also gave us
alternative routes and views so we could get a broader sense of access, location
and local facilities.

Entering a critical negotiation period just as we were on
our way to Rockport, Maine to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary
we thought it was going to be difficult to access, sign and return the
documents given our travel schedule.

However, technology came to our aid. Flying to Boston with Virgin America we were able
to keep connected throughout the flight. Ordering drinks and snacks from the touch
screen whilst flying kept us fuelled while I worked and Sue enjoyed the
in-flight entertainment

Using the Gogo Inflight
Internet service I was able to access my email and the Internet, which allowed
Sue and I to sign the offer papers electronically at 30,000 feet using the secure
DocuSign e-signature service.

Additionally, I was able to transfer money in flight between
my bank accounts to make the deposit available.

The ability to make use of the mobile in-flight service
reduced our stress, made the procedures seamless and most importantly meant we
did not have to take up any vacation time dealing with physical documents. By
the time we arrived at baggage claim, Patricia had already presented our offer
to the listing agent.

Professional help and emotional support from our agent plus our
own solid research resulted in the successful purchase of a greta propertywe
believe meets all our needs for the foreseeable future.

December 13, 2009

With the explosion of the internet, as well articulated by John Battelle as "The Database of Intentions" users' search activity defined them.

As time went on, Google started to build up a more and more comprehensive understanding of their users - not only via their search activity (Twitter now included) but via many other Google services - mail (Gmail and now Google Wave), Google Maps, Blogging (Blogger) RSS (Google Reader), Video (YouTube), Photos (Picasa) personal profiling (Google Profiles and why Google wants you to Google yourself), as well as interaction with advertising and marketers via DoubleClick (and now AdMob) and Google Local.

While the Google corporate philosophy of Don't Be Evil is still the informal corporate motto - the opportunity for inappropriate use of PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is very real and privacy advocates are right to push very hard for transparency into permission settings, the collection and usage of user data via cookies and other means.

The era of PCs (Personal Computers) and the broadband internet has given rise to a new mass media. As defined by Tomi Ahonen, the internet was the sixth of the mass media. We have now entered the era of the seventh mass media - mobile and the implications for user data collection are profound.

The world of PCs (Personal Computers) has now evolved into PCs (Personal Communicators) - mobile computers in the palm of your hand. This is going to profoundly shift power from the legacy content companies who previously controlled mass media via the creation and distribution of content to the new tech-media companies, such as Google. These new media companies are less focused on the creation of original content but are intently focused on the creation and consumption of content by users.

Knowledge is power and in the world of digital media that power comes from user data.

The noise on the internet today that Google is about to sell its own phone direct to consumers is, I believe, the next piece of the puzzle that Google needs to put in place to truly understand user behavior and profiling.

WinTel - (Microsoft and Intel) dominated the PC industry over the last 2-3 decades - however the telecommunications market dwarfs the PC market and Google is aiming to be its leader.

For the last few years Google executives have made it very clear that mobility is their future - mobile search, a mobile bowser and a mobile operating system. Coupled with a move into hardware - smartmobile devices (smartphones, smartpads etc.) control over mobile software and content distribution could give Google a near monopolistic position in user data.

The foundations have been laid - Google has established a dominant brand for internet search - it aims to repeat that for mobile search. Even more interesting is their recent move in the telecommunications space - not only via their Android operating system, which is starting to gain momentum and also their goals for Chrome as a mobile browser - (eventually the two will probably fuse so that the benefits of both will be available on mobile devices) but now Google is looking at services and hardware.

Following their acquisition of Grand Central and its evolution to Google Voice - Google is rapidly rolling out a VOIP service that, in additional to voice calls has features such as voicemail, call history, conference calling, call screening, blocking of unwanted calls and voice transcription to text of voicemail messages. This fast growing service was recently extended to allow you to use your existing number for certain Google Voice features.

So what might be the next move by Google - a Google phone that is not tied to any carrier ? A new service where you could transfer your existing number ? Potentially free handsets and call services supported by advertising ?

But, I don't think it is really the services that Google is really going after - it is you.

Your mobile phone number, is probably the most important number after your social security number. Unlike email addresses, which we collect by the dozen, we very rarely change our mobile number - it's with us for life.

Mobile is rapidly going to become our most important mass media - in addition to the benefits of the previous mass media, mobile has unique attributes that cannot be replicated by the previous mass media - Tomi Ahonen lists the following:

Mobile is the first personal mass media

Mobile is permanently carried

Mobile is always-on

Mobile has a built-in payment mechanism

Mobile is available at the point of creative inspiration

Mobile has the most accurate audience measurement

Mobile captures the social context of media consumption

Mobile allows Augmented Reality to be used in media

The mobile phone will be the remote to your physical and digital lives, always carried, always on. It knows where you are and what you did - it's a record of your life, your interests and intent. It's uniquely personal and it defines you.

You are your mobile number. Your mobile number is your personal profile.

The user data smartphones can amass is a marketers dream. It should be no surprise that Google wants to get hold of your information..

If you decide to let them have it, you might also want to ensure you are in control of how they use your data. After all it's personal.

September 10, 2009

Yesterday I attended the Clickability
Digital Strategies Event as a panelist yesterday in NYC – while we covered a
lot on the panel Executive Best Practices: What Must Media Executives Do Today to be a Force in the Future?"– time prevented us getting to all the questions so here are some
fuller answers.

Q 1) What will your company look like
in five years and what are you doing NOW to prepare?

A. 5 years is a remarkable short
period of time – esp. when we think that even with the speed of change in the
Internet space many companies are still debating some of the transitions – the
impact of search, social media, disintermediation, syndication. It takes a long
time – often retirement or death is needed to change attitudes!

While there are major disruptions –
there are a number of obvious trends – these are not new – we’ve observed them
for a couple of decades.Analogue
to digital – everything is going to digital (even if the final output is
analogue) we’re seeing media complement each other – plus there’s a movement to
digital + analogue.Major themes and trends include engagement of communities and social media, content curation and
filtering, hyper-local, targeting, mobility – personalization, LBS.

Over the next few years, I think most
media companies will be more comfortable with both the uniqueness of their
print, online and mobile products – the specific benefits each one offers but
also how they can all work together – there will be more integration across
organizations.

What works best in
print does not necessarily translate well online and similarly replicating a web
site on mobile devices is a poor idea!.

Organizations needs to flexible, have
an agile approach, some of the wisdom that comes with experience has to be
meshed with youthful innovation and a willingness to experiment. So one of the
most important investments a company can make is in its people and their
training.

With the economic
challenges of today – there will be a tendency to reduce perceived short-term
risk – to be too conservative –
when in fact there is a real danger that in-action will jeopardize the future.
Unless companies properly plan for the medium and long-term – when the economy
improves – they could find themselves at competitive disadvantages from new
more agile entrants – those who can utilize the latest technologies and approaches.
Keep hiring yoiung!

Certain job functions
will be seen as critical – audience development, data analysis, social
community interaction, content curation rather than just a focus on original
content, UI and UX expertise. The new generation of content creators will need
to be more comfortable with creating enhanced content environments using
multiple media formats. That will take time.

We’ll see more pragmatism –
consolidations, partnerships, and joint ventures – the current approach of many
companies is to win a Pyrrhic victory – the devastating cost of winning is so high it’s not
worth it.The media industry is
notorious for its egotism, siloed approach and un-cooperative tactics – I’ve
had experience in running a successful JV between two of the most competitive
organizations – IDG and Ziff Davis – it was the right thing to do at the time
and everyone benefited – the owners, the advertisers and the readers. JVs are
not long-term institutions but can work well for a short period.

Q 2) Where/how are you investing now
for the future?

A. My
advice to companies is to invest in a number of areas – first people, education and training. We operate in a very fast
paced dynamic environment -
it’s largely a people business so you need the right skills – even if money is
tight – there are a lot of very bright college kids who are willing to apprentice
through intern programs. Use alternative resources – for example work with
local colleges to have classes analyze new business models, design new web pages
or iPhone apps – great training for the students and not only can you get great
ideas but also some talented future employees.

Plumbing – analytics
and metrics and research are critical – data
is the new oil – you have to know how your audiences are engaging with your
content. Conduct ongoing research
on customer satisfaction.

Outsourcing certain technologies I’d
think very hard about outsourcing some (not all) technologies to the cloud –
especially in the commodity areas and keep internal those that need
flexibility, customization and are considered mission critical. Rent don’t buy today’s equivalent of the “printing
presses”.

User data collection and audience
development - Databases are critical assets and are competitive barriers to
entry. Of course, taking into careful consideration, the appropriate and
transparent issues of privacy and TOS – collect email and mobile numbers on
opt-in basis. Build ways to constantly engage with your audiences.

UI / UX - print generally is designed extremely well from a UI
perspective – we’ve had a lot of experience – however, well-designed websites
and mobile environments are the exception not the rule. Try reading the digital replicas of
newspapers on your laptop. Try to navigate a web page that scrolls for 10-20 pages
crammed with links, ads and anything but the content you want or a mobile app
that overwhelms you with features. What are
your user satisfaction scores and how are they trending?

Q 3)
What emerging business models are sustainable or simply transitory?

A. I’m a supporter of the theory of evolution –all business models evolve – they have to, nothing stays
the same nor should it. Competition
drives innovation – and the weaker species become extinct. The advertising
models of traditional print publishing (esp. newspapers) are under huge economic
pressure due to technological shifts. Publishers in the US in particular have
for too long been dependant on advertising as the principle source of
revenue – undermining the value of content – training users to expect it for
free rather than emphasizing it’s value. Looking ahead advertising has to be
positioned as a real customer benefit not an unnecessary interruption.

What’s hot what’s not!

-The status quo is not sustainable – agility and
experimentation is We’re in
unchartered territory - Going forwards we’ll see massive amounts of experimentation
– you have to be willing to fail – even fail spectacularly – the wipe-out is an
education, a learning experience!

There will be different advertising and paid content models, different paid
services – the winners will be those who are agile, willing to experiment and
not be satisfied with the status quo. There
is no panacea – no “right” answer – the paid models of WSJ and FT may be
totally inappropriate for local newspapers. The economics of markets,
audiences, content varies considerably – you know your audiences – what works
for them? You have to have a customer centric not publisher centric philosophy.
Observe, learn and adapt keep close to your customers and understand your
markets.

There has to be a better
balance between advertising and paid content and services than we’ve seen over
the last few decades. Keep a close
eye on the tests coming out of News Corp. They are very serious about paid
content models.

- Generality is less sustainable than
specificity - The specific pushes out the general– so we’ll see more and more
a world of “hyper-local” – geography, topics and audiences.

- Free alone is not sustainable but free to
paid can be – I think Chris Anderson, gets somewhat misunderstood – free is
a driver. Free can be a catalyst
to drive to paid products – online can drive to a paid print product –
especially if the product benefits are clearly articulated.

- Interruption is not sustainable– customer engagement is. General online CPM advertising will
remain under pressure – targeted advertising, behavioral, customer interaction
and engagement will gain traction.
Privacy issues will continue to be a concern and publishers must be
extremely transparent about what data is being collected and how it is used.

- Ownership of (most) products – books,
magazine, music, movies is not sustainable (except in niche categories) rental
and subscription models are. Apple may disagree but Pandora gets my subscription
when it could go to an Apple iTune subscription.

-
Push only models are not sustainable – pull models that involve the
audiences are - importance of social media will only increase – engagement,
attention, recommendations and trust are key issues

- There is a new mass media and it is mobility
– whole range of mobile devices are on the way – (btw I don’t see the e-reader as mass market
mainstream device) the smartphone is defining a new mass media. Mobile
Social, Mobile Search, LBS services (Yelp as an example) will be key drivers. Publishers should to be developing mobile strategies.

- Physical or
digital alone is not sustainable - The physical and digital world will link via
“augmented reality" through the in-phone camera

- Cost of developing certain original content
has to reduce – the digital economics will not support the current models –
publishers will have to focus and differentiate – As noted by Jeff Jarvis - do what you do best and link the rest. Great
content is expensive and hard to produce – all the more reason to price it appropriately

Q 4)
What are the international and global opportunities for media?

A.Given
previous years of experience at IDG – I’m a huge supporter of an international
strategy for media – but it has to be managed carefully. Think global but act local.
Many sites in the US see 30-40% of their traffic coming from outside the
US – that can be viewed as “wasted traffic” that is hard to monetize – or it
can be viewed as a great opportunity – for example a B2B company in the US –
collecting lead generation information from most US visitors could partner with
a European partner to find a way to monetize the traffic

Q 5) In the
next 5 years where do you see media consolidation?

A. Across
the whole industry – there is just too much commodity content that cannot be
monetized –but I also see more
fragmentation as self publishing becomes easier and the promotional power of
the social web is better utilized for marketing, search and discovery

Q 6) As leaders,
how do you quickly evolve companies that may be entrenched in outdated
paradigms?

A. It takes a long time to change a
culture.

Focus on the people – understand
where they fall – from the early adopters to the laggards and even potential (often
unintentional) saboteurs. Push continuous training and education and keep
getting a perspective from outside your company – even from outside your
industry can be stimulating.

Q 7) Describe the digital
executive of the future?

A. I don’t think the
leadership qualities of a digital executive are really any different from any other good leader. I’d look for a customer and market focused visionary and strategist,who embraces knowledge from multiple sources, synthesizes it and then clearly lays
out the destination ahead.

An individual who
understands the value of the human talent in the organization and is willing to
properly invest in the best and the brightest but is also quickly willing to
move aside thosewho resist appropriate change.

Someone who places a very
high value on the product that is being produced

Someone who runs a very
agile and efficient organization- who pushes the organization to take some risk
but mitigates that risk by a deep understanding of customer and market needs – even when
the customers may not be able to articulate it themselves.

August 07, 2009

When the Yahoo directory launched it was a great way to showcase some of the best web sites - but with exponential growth of web pages - it could not keep up and search replaced the browse function.
The growth of the apps stores, the fact that they are being so "controlled" means that there must be a similar change in the current model. When the iPhone launched, developers had to build web apps - but the web browser was not sophisticated enough. With the launch of the iPhone SDK we saw the surge of iphone apps, aided by Apple's iTunes distribution and payment systems.
However, the problems over search and discovery, inconsistent approval procedures, arbitrary rejects, a reviews system that can be gamed and an awful search and discovery process is leaving developers and customers disillusioned.
Google sees the opportunity to try and own the mobile browser and the development of apps within the browser. Sure, it's not there yet and will take a number of years to flush out but the directional indicators are pretty clear. Apps stores have some short term advantages but go long on the mobile browser. Certain segments such as mobile banking will never develop mobile apps because of security issues, esp caching. Banks and finance institutions will develop apps in the mobile browser and wrap them in an App skin to get maximum distribution but their focus is all on the mobile browser.
Apple's success with the Apps store may blind them to the mobile browser opportunities. However, the recent moves by Google many give them significant pause for thought.

"I don’t think that’s likely. We’re looking and talking to a lot of laboratories and big companies around the world like Sony, Fujitsu, Samsung. We’re all working on wireless readers for books or for newspapers or for magazines. I think they’re a year or two away, being marketed in a mass way, high quality ones. And we will be absolutely neutral. We’re very happy to have our products distributed over any device provided it’s only going to subscribers who are paying for it."

The decision not to build a device but instead to work with many partners seems a really smart one. Maybe some other newspaper companies, such as Hearst with their investment in FirstPaper, will rethink their plans.

Yet more e-readers were announced this week including the Ditto Book and the Bookeen Cybook Opus. There are currently around 40 different e-ink devices with, no doubt, plenty more to come before the inevitable shake out. Such competition will speed the price reductions that are necessary if the e-reader is to move from a niche to mass market product.

However, different approaches to screen technology such as the one from Pixel Qi to redesign the LCD screen could change the whole landscape as this technology finds its way into netbooks, notebooks and tablets reducing the need for a separate e-reader device.

Publishers continue to fret about Amazon's dominance of the e-book distribution market, according to a recent Bloomberg report. While concerns over the power of Amazon and the pressure on margins are justified - traditional book publishers still have to do much more to radiacally change their business structures to deal with the inevitable shift to digital. Certain book publishers appear to be embracing the move to digital faster than others.

Amazon was also in the news with the launch of a new special store called Amazon Wireless— it will be competing against Let's Talk . The online store will sell wireless service plans and devices from U.S. carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Sprint and T-Mobile USA are coming soon. The sale of the iPhone is not suported

The week ahead has a number of key mobile events:

IAB Marketplace Mobile will be held on July 13th in NYC and will focus on mobile marketing and advertising. The event follows on the heels of a report from the IAB UK that indicates the majority of consumer are willing to embrace mobile advertising

On July 14th also in NYC, the Online Publishers Association is hosting a members only OPA Mobile Day presenting updated research on the mobile marketplace.

And on July 16th in San Francisco, MobileBeat2009 gathers 400 mobile developers, executives, entrepreneurs, marketers and press to discuss the future of mobile technology.

The journey to digital - online and mobile, continues at a rapid pace even if the road ahead is not always well signposted.

In a clearly overly simplistic analysis to drive home a point - if you estimate that it costs on $25,000 on average to develop a paid iPhone app, given there are over 45,000 paid apps in the store - that represents over $1 BN in investment costs. However, assuming a generous 10% of all the apps downloaded are paid for - at 1 billion downloads with an average revenue of around $2.99 revenues in the order of $300MM will be generated, of which 30% goes to Apple.

While there are some good solutions, in app advertising is not making up the gap between costs and revenue. Of course. there may be other, harder to quantify benefits, for creating a iPhone app. While there are exceptions the reality is that for most aspiring iPhone App millionaires, it's a tough road ahead.

Unless you make the top 25 lists, it's difficult to be found and stand out in the store among 60,000+ apps, the expectations for an app from the user base are high and the willingness to pay for a good app is low.

7/14 Updated: Apple has just announced that downloads have reached 1.5B and 100,000 developers are working on Apps. See article at VentureBeat

It is however a great business for Apple and helps sell a lot of iPhones and iPod touches. Some of my current apps favorites include:

April 20, 2009

An excellent articleby Jim Stongill, touches on the opportunity through the digitalization of books, for our culture and history to be available and accessible through search.

Analogue content exists in multiple formats but it's in danger of being lost or just being too hard to find. Newspapers, over the centuries have been the chronicles of world, national, regional and local happenings they need to be preserved in our digital era.

Reading an archive edition of the New York Times or your local paper for the day on which you were born, or for some other memorable occasion, richly brings to life all aspects of social life at that time - the hopes and aspirations, the human achievements and tragedies; all the rich tapestry of human life. It's one thing to trace your family tree but it's much more meaningful if you can appreciate how your ancestors were living at the time - the media of the time allows you to do that. Of course, analogue records exist in libraries but it takes an awful lot of effort to find the content.

As the doors shutter on many newspapers and their offices and basements are hastily cleaned out, is anyone thinking about saving these incredible legacy records? Is preserving history worth the expense?

For over four decades, IDG has covered the IT industry worldwide. There is no other media company that has the timeline history of the developments in the industry, but even so, if you wanted to research some aspect of computer history, the archives are difficult to access. Ideally the information should be available within a search bar. To achieve goal, IDG worked with the Google archive project, to digitalize IDG's newspaper archives.

Google Archive took IDG's complete archives of Computerworld going back to the very first issue in June 1967 and digitalized them for free. Finding a complete set was a challenge in itself but luckily all issues were eventually located. Early issues were preserved on microfilm and microfiche, while later copies were available in print and more recently in various digital formats.

The cost of converting over 40 years of analogue information in multiple formats to digital is significant. Most publishers are unwilling to undertake the exercise if the revenue streams associated with archive content do not cover the conversion cost. Also, there are author, artist and photographic rights that were crafted in a pre-digital era that can present significant legal challenges. These rights issues unfortunately stopped IDG from carrying out a similar exercise for its computer magazines such as PC World and Macworld.

IDG was willing to place its content into the Google archive so the history of the computer industry could be freely available to everyone. The arrangement with Google included revenue sharing opportunities around the advertising that is delivered with the content.

I believe the Google Archive project is admirable and clearly fits into Google's mission of cataloging all the world's information but like too many of Google's secondary projects it appears to be languishing a bit and archived information is not as integrated into the main search results as it should be. I hope that will be addressed as the project is developed further.

Media owners, especially those where media properties have been shuttered or are likely to be, should consider if they want to help preserve history or allow it to be shredded. If the economic cost is too significant to absorb, partner programs such as Google Archive offer a free option. If publishers want to retain full control, believing that can better monetize the content via paid access on their own sites rather than via Google, then are a number of services that will carry out the digital conversion.

But it's not just the newspaper industry that should digitalize their archives. The B2B media industry has the history of the business verticals through newspapers and magazines.

March 30, 2009

The MPA (The Magazine Publishers of America) today is releasing an analysis that assigns a
relative value to each minute consumed, and not surprisingly, consumer
magazine stack up very well vs. other major consumer media on that
basis, including TV, radio, the Internet, and even the other major
consumer print medium, newspapers.

While laudable to show the value of magazine advertising I think the MPA has to take a real leadership in looking at the audience relationship with the brand - and stop putting the magazine at the center of the universe. Print magazines can be key product - but publishers are not in the print business - they are in the customer information business - it takes bold vision to move the conversation up a notch - which I think the MPA can do - but as long as it's just seen as a defensive trade organization, protecting print, then its long-term relevance will be questioned and it will continue to lose membership support and the dues that are necessary to fulfill a long-term mission.

I believe the industry needs an MPA - the Media Publishing Association. An organization that can get behind the value of print, online, mobile all vital but very different mass media with vastly different user experiences.

The current MPA is just not going to win a print versus other media argument but it definitely has more chance of winning an argument that values all media with magazines playing a role.

March 26, 2009

A fascinating report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project on mobile internet usage. As an internet driven culture the US has a significant way to go to catch-up with the mobile cultures of developing countries - such as China, India and to some extent Europe. This report should be a wake up call.

According to the analysis, 61% of the adult population do not feel the pull of mobility. That needs to change - mobile companies have to do a much better job selling the value proposition that mobile access brings. Mobile can deliver huge personal and business productivity benefits. It's the next mass media and publishers and other organizations need to be planning for the transition to mobile now. The transition from print to online is nothing compared to the disruption mobile will cause over the next few years.

Digital Collaborators: 8% of adults use information gadgets to collaborate with others and share their creativity with the world.

Ambivalent Networkers: 7% of adults heavily use mobile devices to connect with others and entertain themselves, but they don’t always like it when the cell phone rings.

Media Movers: 7% of adults use online access to seek out information nuggets, and these nuggets make their way through these users’ social networks via desktop and mobile access.

Roving Nodes: 9% of adults use their mobile devices to connect with others and share information with them.

Mobile Newbies: 8% of adults lack robust access to the internet, but they like their cell phones.

Desktop Veterans: 13% of adults are dedicated to wireline access to digital information, and like how it opens up the pipeline to information for them.

Drifting Surfers: 14% of adults are light users – despite having a lot of ICTs – and say they could do without modern gadgets and services.

Information Encumbered: 10% of adults feel overwhelmed by information and inadequate to troubleshoot modern ICTs. The Tech Indifferent: 10% of adults are unenthusiastic about the internet and cell phone.

Most “motivated by mobility” groups have positive and improving attitudes about cell phones, while remaining groups have tepid and deteriorating attitudes about them. Deepening attachment to digital resources – wired and wireless – means connectivity is for many users now about continual information exchange. The bar for what qualifies as high-tech among users has risen. The “penalty” for having little or no access rises in a multi-platform world.

March 17, 2009

The
implications for the publishing industry are huge but extremely welcome.
Ultimately, today’s announcement will be seen as a tipping point for an
industry that is facing massive economic havoc caused by the combined impact of
the Internet and the current economic recession.

The critical
part of today’s announcement for publishers is the ability to leverage the
purchase model of the App Store within individual apps. In-App Purchases now
allow developers (and media publishers) to offer subscription content and provides the ability to sell
new content and features in a simple and secure process. Before this
announcement, publishers could not easily monetize their mobile content via a
paid model. Now, a paid content model on mobile has opened up for media companies.

For the
last fifteen years, publishers have watched with anguish as the free content
model of the Internet wrecked havoc with their businesses. Initially,
online advertising provided some economic support for the cost of content
creation but analogue dollars
rapidly converted to digital pennies (it appears we've now moved up to digital dimes) The majority of online
revenues have gone mainly to the search engines rather than to traditional
media companies who create the original content. Lost subscription and
newsstand revenues, plus reduced online advertising revenues (in overall dollar
terms) cannot compensate for the collapse of print revenues. Some B2B
publishers, such as my previous employer, International Data Group
fared better as they focused on performance based revenue streams, especially aroundlead generation.

Many
publishers’ inability to adapt quickly to the changes brought about by the
internet is part of the problem – but it’s hard to compete with free and it’s
really difficult to break a highly profitable cash generating model for one
with uncertain revenues and profits.

The
transition from print to online is challenged under today’s business models.
Some argue that print can be fixed by changing the business
model. However, I don’t subscribe to that view. Print is not “dead”
but is much less relevant as a medium for the consumption and creation of
content.

Today,
nearly all publishing is digital publishing and nearly all writing is for digital
media. Publishers have to adapt to the realities around them, not cling
unrealistically to a previous era.

Now,
we’re about to go into another media transition. Online is now fairly well
established but mobile is about to surge.

Mobile is the 7th of the Mass Media , and
it offers publishers the opportunity to redefine their businesses and to really
learn from some of the mistakes during the era of print to online transition.

The
good news is that users’ psychology around mobile is very different to how they
view online – they are actually willing (or have been conditioned) to pay for
stuff – for SMS, for ringtones, for music, for games, for content – either via
the carriers or as Apple’s iTunes has shown, via a convenient online storefront
that is completely separate from the carriers.

Through
the iTunes store, users can purchase music, movies, audio books, and iPhone
applications. It’s a breeze to use and integrated well with both your computer
and iPhone.

Today
there are approximately 28,000 apps of
which around 75% are paid apps. Excluding the free apps, the average price of
paid apps is a little under $4. According to Apple, 800,000,000 apps have been
downloaded and while the majority of downloads are for free, if even 10% of
these downloads are paid, assuming an average of $4, that represents
approximately gross revenues of $320MM. Apple takes 30%. It’s not hard to see
this growing to a multi-billion dollar business over the next few years.

As the
number of apps grows rapidly there is increasing concern over discovery. If you
are selling a game app for $0.99 you are competing with another 6,000. So
unless you get on the top 25 list or are a featured app it’s extremely hard to
get noticed. The Apps Store is not currently searchable by the various
search engines, so the concept of Apps Store Optimization (ASO) is not
developed – yet.

Apple’s
taxonomy and sub-categorization leaves much to be desired and the interface is
based more around a browse than a search metaphor. But, despite these and other
go-to-market challenges currently facing developers, the Apps Store, coupled
with 30 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices is a huge addressable market and
growing rapidly. It can’t be ignored.

Today’s
announcement, plus an expected upgrade to the iPhone in the summer will ensure
solid momentum for the product with the other handset manufacturers scrambling
to play catch-up.

For
publishers, the subscription model available with the Apps Store helps answer
the question of whether to mobilize a web page or develop an app. While my
recommendation is that publishers need to develop a very comprehensive mobile
strategy, the revenue streams are more likely to be from a paid app that from
advertising off a mobilized web page.

Mobile
digital content is really starting to take off. Over the last several weeks,
there has been a lot of activity in
the e-book market. It’s largely driven by the publicity around the release of Amazon’s Kindle
2 and the accompanying iPhone application but other news includes
the acquisition of
Fictionwise and e-reader by Barnes and Noble. Google marches ahead
with their digital book archive project and digital book
search but it’s still unclear if their motivation is to be an
online e-book retailer or it's perhaps more likely that they are using
digitalization of books to improve their search algorithms.

While
Amazon has a proprietary format and is enforcing DRM,
to the point that it’s not possible to transfer books purchased in other
formats to the Kindle, many hope that eventually users’ interests will prevail
over corporate shortsightedness.

The
current crop of e-readers, using e-ink technology
offers a reasonable experience for trade book reading – as only text display is
necessary. However, the current grayscale displays offer less than optimal
experience for those wanting to view digital copies of reference books, textbooks,
Science, Technical and Medical (STM) books and newspapers and magazines with
images.

The
ability to transfer a pdf to the Kindle via Amazon’s free service negates a lot
of their advertised advantages. Transferring and reading pdfs on a Kindle is a
perfectly acceptable experience for now.

I don’t
think the Kindle or the current crop of e-readers is the white knight for publishers but
Apple and the iPhone 3.0 could be the necessary catalyst.

The
mobile Internet device (MIDs) market is evolving rapidly although the
limitations of the current crop of black-and-white e-readers have many yearning for
a tablet or netbook device from Apple – an iPod Touch on steroids.

Although
Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs has been disdainful
of the e-book market in the past – most understand that Apple will carefully
analyze the market and if it believes the market is significant the organization will come in with
a vastly improved solution. However, a combination of technology issues,
component pricing plus the economy could delay what many believe is an
inevitable move by Apple.

There is
a collision going on in the market – the carriers, especially in Europe, are
looking to subsidized
netbooks to drive data revenue streams. Netbooks,
spurred on by the One Laptop Per Child
(OLPC) program are generally dumbed down but inexpensive Internet access
devices, (price points around are $299). They have basic communications
and Internet access but with limited storage and processing power.

Most
major PC companies are producing small laptops – called by a variety of names –
UltraMobilePCs (UMPCs), “Litebooks”,
“PocketBooks“
or mini notebooks, which while more expensive than Netbooks, have the
functionality expected of laptops/ notebooks.

For the
PC companies it’s a balancing act – these mini-notebooks have lower prices and
margins than their standard laptop offerings so while consumer demand appears
to be strong, the PC companies have to manage their bottom line.

The success
of Apple’s iPhone plus their Apps store, the impact on other handset
manufacturers, the growth of e-ink readers, the consumer demand for Netbooks
and Mini-notebooks all adds up to the increased consumption of content via
mobile devices.

Only a
fool would try and accurately predict the future but the trends we see today
are going to shape the media industry over the next 5-10 years.

Mobile
is a game changer. Mobile devices (and there will be many varieties) benefit
from being personal, always-on, always carried, and location aware. They can
act as a mobile wallet and they allow you create and upload content to your
social and business networks.

Mobile
will redefine our understanding of the Internet and personal communications.

Publishers
need to start really thinking through their mobile strategies.

Media
companies need to plan how they can best serve their audiences via mobile
access. The user interface and user experience will be critical. Many
publishers learned the hard way that online is not taking a print magazine or
newspaper and making it digital. Online, thanks to search and interactivity, is
a different medium and content has to address the user experience. Mobile is
not an online site mobilized. The medium is different yet again and a lot of
research has to be spent understanding the needs of mobile users.

The closures are blamed both on a bad economy and also the rise of the Internet. A drastic drop in print classified advertising fueled by online services such as Craigslist alongside the increased consumption of information in digital formats especially by the younger readers has resulted in secular changes in the industry.

While the significant human impact on those who have dedicated their lives to producing quality products is summed up well in the video - Final Edition it also showcases people’s desire to retain the status quo. In today’s environment, that’s not a realistic option.

The financial issues are complex but a lot of the problems have been caused by legacy media companies failing to quickly and boldly address the fundamental question – “what industry are we in”. The need for transformative action has been obvious for many years but the industry, for various reasons, has been unable or unwilling to make radical changes.

The correct answer for media companies is to understand they are in the Information business and that the medium – print, online or mobile is secondary.

Delivery of information should be tailored to the needs of target audiences. The laid back, rich visual experience of print, the lean forward search environment of online or the immediate access to targeted local content via mobile devices offer different and complementary experiences – each has its place.

An unhealthy, over-reliance on advertising is the root cause of the problems facing print newspapers in the US. For decades, readers have been trained to receive content that is heavily subsidized by marketers and advertisers. There is a completely different psychology and appreciation of value when someone has to pay. Good content costs a lot of money to produce and if quality products are to survive, both consumers and advertisers have to pay a reasonable share.

Hearst’s president Steven Swartz is halfway through “a 100 days of change” and a memo that is contained in a recent Wall Street Journal blog is well worth a read. But as argued by Jeff Jarvis, it is probably to too late for the evolutionary changes proposed when a more radical approach is still required.

However, I’m extremely interested to learn more about Hearst’s decision to develop an e-reader and to charge for content consumed via mobile devices. While Hearst has not indicated which technology it will use, it could be the reader from Plastic Logic or from their investment FirstPaper. Hearst is also an investor in e-ink.

Plastic Logic's electronic reader is about the size of an 8.5 x 11 inch pad of paper and weighs less than many print magazines and should be available late 2009.

The reader has the potential for widespread use as an alternative to printed publications. But it faces competition from Amazon's new Kindle 2 e-book reader, Sony’s touch screen reader PRS-700, the iRex iLiad and the increasing use of devices such as the iPhone and the iPod Touch to consume digital contact. Reader’s such as ScrollMotion’s Iceberg and LexCycle’s Stanza also put well formatted content in the palm of your hand. Netbooks, mininotebooks, UMPCs all are driving mobile information consumption. Flexible touch screen technology is sure to revolutionize the mobile market over the next few years.

But, there is no easy panacea to the woes of the print industry. The disruption is wrenching in human and economic terms as the world rapidly shifts to the consumption of content via digital mediums.

However, even as distribution mediums and business models face pressure, publishers should take heart that their audiences still seek quality news and information. The addressable audiences is actually expanding, publishers can reach more people in a targeted way than ever before. Despite some fears, democracy is not going to collapse just because some newspapers fail. In fact, greater audience participation, especially at a local and community level is likely to improve government.

New business models are required for publishers to succeed. Users have to pay a fair amount for access to quality content just as advertiser should pay for access to targeted audiences. Perhaps books on demand production using the Expresso Book Machine or magazine on demand from MagCloud will help change the economics.

Mobile offers publishers some light at the end of a long tunnel. It’s still at early stage of deployment but mobile data usage will grow exponentially over the next 5-years. According to a recently released report by the Kelsey Group, mobile advertising in the US will balloon for $3.1 billion by 2013 from $160 million last year.

While the business models for mobile remain under developed, the trends are obvious. Smart publishers will be investing now and preparing their organizations to understand what news and information needs to be delivered via mobile devices in a manner that can economically cover creation costs.

Maybe in 5-years time as mobile becomes a dominant platform for the consumption of content – it will be online businesses that will be lamenting their final editions. Check out the Charlie Rose interview with Marc Andreessen for a great perspective.

March 01, 2009

Approximately 15 years ago, the World Wide Web burst onto the scene, forever altering the world of publishing. Over the next decade and a half, publishing transformed from a one-way medium in which content was created and distributed by publishers to captive audiences, to an environment in which virtually anyone could become a creator, aggregator or distributor.

Armed with easy-to-use publishing and communication tools, the audiences changed from passive recipients of information to active conversationalists. Efficient search tools helped people filter and reach content of interest from multiple sources.

This new world of search, distributed content and social and business networks placed enormous pressure on traditional publishers, many of whom focused on protecting their rapidly eroding traditional brands and business models rather than embracing change.

The old CPM media model assumed that everyone who received a publication read every advertisement. In times of economic prosperity, the ads kept coming in and the average revenue per user rose, producing handsome profits for publishers.

However, with audiences spending more time online, advertisers and marketers are now increasingly focused on direct response and measuring audience engagement.

Mass reach is now much less important that targeted and engaged audiences. The result for many media companies, as famously noted by Jeff Zucker, the CEO of NCB Universal, resulted in analog dollars being converted into digital pennies. With pressure from advertisers and reducing circulation revenues, now publishers are forced to question the cost of creating original differentiated content and having to blend in content from sources that are a lot less expensive.

Marketing spend continues to shift rapidly to online. Even in these tough economic times, overall online revenues are expected to grow by around 10% in 2009, and online’s share of media will continue to increase. However, the marketers’ spend, rather than going to traditional publishers, is being allocated to the search companies, putting even more pressure on publishers.

Advertisers and marketers are intensely focused on audience quality, their engagement and the overall ROMI performance. While many question advertisers’ overreliance on PPC advertising online at the expense of awareness and brand building, performance-based advertising is likely to be a major beneficiary in these recessionary times.

A major test facing publishers is to prove the effectiveness of general CPM brand- and awareness-building ads online, where the environment is more about the engagement of the audience with relevant, targeted information.

Transforming a traditional company to being online focused is not easy. The successful ones have realized that relying on just online advertising is a recipe for disaster. By developing additional revenue streams such as lead generation, e-commerce and even online subscriptions, b2b publishers have found online businesses that are closer to the old print models of advertising, subscriptions and newsstand sales.

Today, online publishers are focused relentlessly on overall RPM (revenues per thousand pages) and its component revenues streams, trying to reduce over-reliance on any single revenue stream. Recognizing that a rigid adherence to premium pricing while protecting the brand value is causing marketers to seek out similar online audiences from third-party networks, the more innovative publishers, such as my former employer IDG, have developed their own vertical networks (the IDG Technology Network) that are closely aligned with their core properties, but at the same time provide marketers with low-cost extended reach outside the branded environment.

The delicate balance of protecting core profitable print brands while dealing with the changing dynamics of digital is exceptionally challenging, and the bad news is that there are even greater challenges on the horizon.

If the transition from print to online was hard enough, the disruptive impact of mobile is several magnitudes greater.

Small Screen, Big

Opportunity

Mobile

is the new mass media. It can do everything that can be done by all previous mass media, plus a lot more.

Mobile

is nearly always on, always carried (or close by) and it’s highly personal. It operates as the remote to your physical and digital life.

With over 4 billion mobile connections in the world, compared to around 1.1 billion fixed Internet connections, the scale and potential opportunity of mobile is huge but incredibly challenging.

Print is a lean-back environment and online a lean-forward one.

Mobile

is all about immediacy. Instant communication, instant information related to your location, instant consumption and creation of content—all in a small-screen environment.

It’s a world of digital snacking, not the leisurely consumption of long-form content. That’s likely to change as different mobile Internet devices appear with larger screens. The Kindle offers a glimpse of what possible for the consumption of e-books, digital magazines and newspapers—maintaining the familiar format of print but in an enhanced interactive, digital environment. The iPhone has revolutionized the smartphone market, delivering a powerful computer in your hand.

In addition to the phone features, you now have easy access to the mobile Internet plus the choice of more than 20,000 phone applications covering the gamut of entertainment and gaming to high-end business productivity.

With the other handset manufacturers developing their own mobile application stores, the consumer is going to be faced with bewildering choices.

For publishers, it’s potentially a highly rewarding environment. The challenge is to determine what content to deliver, what customer data to collect, how to design great user interfaces and experiences while finding ways to drive revenue.

Over the next few months I’ll identify those publishers who are the most innovative and successful, so hopefully all media companies will be encouraged to grasp the mobile opportunity that lies ahead.

December 03, 2008

Over at Writer's Digest there is an interesting debate on the future of magazines between Bob Sacks, better known as “BoSacks,” a 38-year veteran of the publishing industry whose e-newsletter, “Heard on the Web: Media Intelligence,” reaches nearly 12,000 readers daily and is essential reading for anyone in the magazine and media industry. BoSacks is a proponent of the digital world and is a strong believer in the developments that are happening around e-paper and the growth of various e-readers and netbooks. In the opposing corner is Samir Husni, nicknamed “Mr. Magazine,” who holds a doctorate in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and is the author of Launch Your Own Magazine: A Guide for Succeeding in Today’s Marketplace who has an amazingly optimistic view on the future of print. The two columns, It's a Digital World Now and The Death of Print Magazine and other Fairy Tales are fascinating reading and represent extreme viewpoints from the publishing industry.

Personally, I'm in BoSack's camp. While I appreciate the tactile experience of magazines and all the reading and visual advantages they bring - print magazines are just less relevant today given the developments in the digital world. There will be niches where print magazines survive for many more years but these will look like hobbies rather big business. And that's OK. For those interested in vertical segments and enjoy the print experience there will be publishers willing to serve them. The mass-market consumer glossies will also have their place for as it will be many years before technology replaces the print experience of Vanity Fair for the general consumer. However, to ignore the long-term digital trends, the advantages of the digital format plus the current actions being taken by consumers, is to live in a fantasy world.

It's still some time off before mass adoption but eventually we'll see cost effective e-paper work in various mobile formats. In digital form, e-paper readers will go much further than static text - there will be search, interactivity, social communications, real-time updating via WiFi with audio, video and other multimedia complementing the text format.

As a parent who watches his son hunch over as he carries a huge weight of textbooks to school every day - I cannot wait for the textbook industry to be reformed. It's a total disgrace - over priced, out of date text books are being forced on our kids by an industry trying to protect a legacy business model. An excellent recent article in The Washington Post discusses the jolt that's needed. I truly hope that a company such as Apple or Amazon combines a hardware and distribution strategy to revolutionize the way our children access and interact with information.

Sorry Mr. Magazine, now we live in a dynamic not static world. Print is a vestige of the past - it has many admirable attributes and will be around for quite a while - but today we don't just want prepackaged text pushed at us - we want to be involved in the content and the discussion around it. Digital and mobility are the way forward - clinging to icons of the past is a disservice to the readers of the future. I know whose class I would recommend my kids to enroll in.

December 02, 2008

Over at MediaPost, Joe Marchese, discusses marketers involvement in social media. The article references an extremely comprehensive piece on Widgets in AdAge byBob Garfield which is an excellent read. The core of the argument being that visitors are spending much more time going to Google, Yahoo and Facebook rather than to destination sites. Brands have to balance a destination site strategy - ( where most of the audience comes in via SEO (search Engine Optimization), SMO (Social Media Optimization) and other search programs rather than via bookmarked and typed in urls) - with distribution and syndication strategies in order to reach target audiences no matter where there are hanging out.

"The characteristics of Twitter make it a perfect tool for use in emergencies - both for disseminating updates and information, and for coordinating help efforts such as contacting friends and relatives"

148Apps is a good resource for iPhone apps and they have just created a tribute page for the current 10,000+ iPhone Apps. Around 2,500 new apps are being added every month. The site lists various statistics including the average price - which is approx $3 with the vast majority priced at $1.99 and below.

Finally, be careful what you get up to in public Pieter DeCrem's defense "I would like to use this occasion and "non event" to point out a dangerous phenomenon in our society; we're living in times where everyone is allowed to publish on blogs, when they please and without any form of responsibility.." did not cut it with blogosphere and even a FaceBook Group was formed to ridicule the minister protestations.

November 15, 2008

Despite the doom and gloom of falling circulation and advertising that’s besetting traditional media - the worst of times will eventually lead to the best of times. This economic crisis will force major changes in the thinking of traditional media companies. Of course, it's probably more likely that key executives will have to be retired before we see real long-term strategic shifts.

The current climate is creating an amazing entrepreneurial opportunity to build "new media companies" - organizations that are unburdened by the vestiges of traditional media thinking - ones that ditch the command and control mentality and open up to their audiences.

Excessive control of content and messaging has already shifted. For the last several years we've been moving to a world of disintermediation. The openness of the web has taken away a significant amount of power from traditional media houses and placed it in the hands of their audiences. Now, content is widely distributed and syndicated – often in an uncontrollable manner.

We're now in a world of audience participation or "social media" - a world where it's all about engaging distributed audiences with contextually relevant content. No longer limited to traditional brands, news and information topics can be created by virtually anyone by the intelligent re-aggregating of fragmented content.

It’s world where publishers and marketers collaborate with audiences rather than broadcasting irrelevant stuff at them. The old adage of the general being pushed out by the specific is particularly relevant today. Users expect information and marketing that's relevant to their interests and needs - they will turn out the rest. It's all about the user experience http://www.nngroup.com/

Unfortunately, it's painfully evident that many traditional publishers just still don't get it - as demonstrated by some recent high profile lay-offs - much digital talent has been let go with the old guard regaining power - this short term thinking underscores a total lack of understanding of what is happening on today’s web and tomorrow on the mobile internet. Medium to long-term strategy is being sacrificed for immediate returns. While some of the decisions are understandable from a short-term financial perspective, in a few years time these media organizations are going to severely regret such brand asset stripping moves.

It seems that in this period of economic uncertainty too many traditional publishers and marketers are rapidly surrendering and retreating to the medium they understand from their past - print, rather than being prepared to go on the offensive and embrace the fundamental secular shifts in the media industry being embrace by the new generations of users.

The web has evolved over two decades from the original HTML document centric approach of Web 1.0 to Web 1.5, which was about interactivity, and search to one of relationships around content - the social Web 2.0. Now it is moving to one of interlinking applications with the dynamic and intelligent linking of content around semantic connections. Content is being automatically connected with people, place and location - the so-called semantic Web 3.0. On top of all that, mobile Internet usage will soon dwarf laptop and desktop Internet usage. It already has in certain regions of the world.

Traditional roles have changed. The role of editors has evolved from one of being focused primarily on original content creation to one of content curation - linking to content from all over the web plus involving audiences in discussion while actively encouraging them to virally distribute content to their own networks.

To quote Jeff Jarvis – cover what you do best - link the rest. Media sales teams now have to look beyond the limited scale of a brand site approach to delivering audience reach across the web. Audience development and the needs of the user absolutely must be at the heart of any digital strategy.

Media companies should appoint audience development, community strategists and community managers to senior management positions to help drive the new focus. Technology needs to be in place to allow publishers to understand the behavioral of their audiences so marketing can be appropriately targeted to users’ interests. The world of online CPM advertising will be under tremendous economic pressure - however publishers that can prove engaged, participatory audiences will command premium rates. Engaged, loyal audiences are the key defensive barriers to competition. Engagement Intensity is today's key KPI.

It's a dififcult cultural transition for many but relatively inexpensive technology is available to build these new media companies - so new competitors will appear rapidly, putting even more pressure on the current strategies of existing brand publishers.

Publishers and brand marketers that don't evolve to connect and engage with their communities are quickly heading to the bankruptcy court. Debt-burdened companies will be foreced to restructure to survive and it will be painful for many. Over the next year, smart fire-sale buyers will swoop in and buy brands and audiences on the cheap and rebuild these brands in a way that incumbent management has failed so to do.

Media companies should look to companies such as Apple for inspiration - Steve Job's leadership aided by a highly competent supporting cast took a failing company and beleaguered brand and re-polished it by focusing on the total user experience coupled with a unrelenting focus on the quality of their products, resulting in a incredible passion and loyalty for the Apple's brands - Mac, iPod and iPhone.

While the economic challenges are significant - a massive opportunity exists to build a new media businesses in this new digital age of audience interaction. Bloated, inefficient and slow moving companies will rightly die but we'll see the emergence of exciting new media companies unburdened by the cultural inflexibility of many existing media companies.

The industry will be re-energized as a result. The new media companies will be largely driven by a new generation of "Young Turks" often who will be mentored and hired by seasoned media executives who actually welcome the inevitable changes. This new generation of digital natives, who live on their laptop and mobile phones, will shape the media content and distributions companies of the future.

October 27, 2008

After nearly 16 great years at IDG in various roles - CEO of Macworld, leading the MacPublishing joint venture between IDG and Ziff Davis, heading up IDG Connect (IDG's Premium Lead Generation Service) plus various strategic roles on the IDG Executive Committee - with a particular focus on helping the company transition to a digital and online centric organization. Now, it's time to try something new.

I intend to use the skills developed over the last 20 years in media to set-up Media7 Consultancy - which will focus on helping publishing companies make the transfer to digital as well as growing their online and mobile businesses. I will be working with several organizations as an advisor, some as a board member and for others Media7 will provide consultancy services. I strongly believe that mobile will become the most important media - hence the name of the company - which pays tribute to Tomi Ahonen who for the last couple of years has been arguing this point and has recently published a book on the subject.

I'm also staying close to the IDG family, and will be working with the partners in the San Francisco office of IDG Ventures, assisting them with deal flow and analysis - perhaps, in due course, even getting involved in one of the portfolio companies or companies under consideration.

The economy is very tough but opportunities abound - the companies that make it through the next couple of years will be well positioned to take advantage of the eventual up-turn. The next few years will be about maximizing operational efficiencies and capital preservation while looking for revenue growth - so I'm extremely excited to have the time and flexibility to take a bit of a step back to really evaluate some amazing organizations and exciting ideas and to work with bright, enthusiastic teams - not only start-ups but also legacy companies re-inventing themselves.

I'm most grateful to IDG, in particular Pat McGovern whose vision and leadership remains totally inspiring - my good colleague, IDG's CEO Bob Carrigan, plus many, many good friends at IDG and in the industry - including IDG's competitors. I've had the good fortune to work with some remarkable people.

October 23, 2008

I had the pleasure of
attending Networked Journalism Summit ,
excellently moderated by Jeff Jarvis. I got a couple of minutes
to speak about some of the transition strategies that have happened at IDG –
Jeff has highlighted the comments on my blog previously - the light at the end of the pressand Print Sucks (his headline) so I won’t repeat them here.The key point is that IDG
is not emotionally invested in print – it’s invested in providing quality
information to readers - no matter in which form they want to
receive it - print, online or mobile. It’s about making audiences
and their eyeballs available to marketers in appropriate ways. Longer term, some of the
strategies that need to be pursued by publishers should include:

2. Focus on audience
engagement - using KPIs to monitor improvement in engagement- IDG's Market Fusion
programand the developments of the Engagement Intensity Index are solid examples of
this approach.

3. Drive performance based
solutions for marketers - especially around premium lead generation services,
custom publishing, events and mobile- the launch of IDG Connect, http://www.idgconnect.com/ IDG’s central
database to drive response programs has been extremely successful and now
responsible for significant revenues.

4 Extend audiences and
inventory via the development of a Vertical Publisher Network - the launch of
the IDG Technology Network http://www.idgtechnetwork.com/
recognizes it's not all about being a destination site but rather focusing on the
aggregation of content and audience fragmentation.

6. Managing the print
properties for "profit" - or at least ensuring there is positive
contribution to overhead.

7. Preparing for the Web 3
- the Semantic Web - thinking about content as objects and the
relationships between content, companies, people and places - viewing the web
as interconnected data and rich applications

8 Continuing to stay close
to readers and advertisers - using research to help identify products that meet
the needs of the marketplace.

The workshop discussions
were illuminating, I sat in on the one focused on revenue lead by Fred Wilson– while around 20 different revenue streams were identified
– generally my sense was that publishers still are too focused on revenue model
that are associated with print and are leaving opportunities associated with
the data associated with their audiences and content.

October 10, 2008

You'll have noticed a small in text blue icon next to companies mentioned in the posts. Rolling over the icon opens up a "panel" that displays additional information about the organization.

“Panels” is a new consumer information network that instantly gives users the most sought after information about any organization, brand, or advertisement – in a standardized, consistent, and predictable format called a “Panel.” Panels can appear on any internet ad, blog, social profile page, email signature, URL, brand name, and more. These “Panels” automatically deliver contextually relevant and in‐depth information to users about any entity, at any time, from numerous data sources. Users get this information for free without diverting them from their web location and without requiring any effort on their part. Panels’ categories are organized as tabs across the top of the panel and so far the following are available;

“About” - Basic company and contact info, URL, logo, and summary“Site” - A full preview of the home page, stats, tags and other goodies about the actual web site/blog“Map” - Beginning with Google Maps, and others to follow, a place for geographic data“News” - Headlines, Blog posts, News, Press Releases and more from a variety of sources“Jobs” - Employment listings across numerous providers such as Monster and SimplyHired“Financial” - If a public company, real-time info and quotes appear in several sub-categories

Coming Soon over the next few weeks are “Reviews” and “Shop”

Site Search - Lastly, notice in the lower left hard corner of the panels, you can easily search just the target site right from here, with results opening up in a new window or tab.